Honorary Heartlette – Karen Foley

November 4, 2007 at 8:48 am | Posted in contests, Honorary Heartlette, Karen Foley, writing | 22 Comments

When Opportunity Knocks…

Hi everyone! I’m so excited to be blogging here at Purple Hearts! My debut book, Flyboy, hit bookstore shelves last month, and was a Romantic Times top pick for October.

How I reached this point is, I think, worth sharing because sometimes it really is a matter of seeing an opportunity, and taking advantage of it.

I’m a big fan of RWA-sponsored contests, and when I was first writing, I entered as many contests as I could. Between 2003 and 2006, I think I entered more than sixty contests. At that time, I was primarily writing historical fiction. Overall, my manuscripts did pretty well on the contest circuit, and I received a lot of positive feedback from the judges, and a handful of requests for partials from editors and agents.

The downside was that I also received my share of lousy scores and hurtful comments. While I was tempted to shove those scores deep into a desk drawer and ignore them, I forced myself to read the comments and try and figure out which remarks were valid, and how I could use them to strengthen my writing. The result was that I began to win or final in many of those contests. It was late in 2005, when I noticed a trend developing; whenever I entered a contest where Brenda Chin, senior editor for Harlequin Blaze, was the final judge, my manuscript finaled or won. She even included personal notes with my score sheets, saying she loved my voice and my characters. Unfortunately, Brenda wasn’t acquiring historical romances.

While I’m not an advocate of chasing market trends, I do believe that occasionally stepping out of your comfort zone can help you grow as a writer. I’d never written a sensual contemporary romance before, and had never read a Harlequin Blaze novel. But the fact that Brenda Chin apparently liked my writing style was incentive enough for me to give it a try.

During the two months leading up to the 2006 RWA National Conference, I devoured Blaze novels at the rate of 3-4 books per week. I even developed a spreadsheet to analyze the different aspects of these books, like what constituted the sexy premise, how explicit was the language, and how many sex scenes were included in each novel? What I found really surprised me. There was no “formula” to writing a Blaze novel. There were no prerequisite number of love scenes, and each story was as unique as the author who penned it. They ran the gamut from light and funny, to dark and edgy, with everything in between. They included paranormals and time travel romances, bad-boy alpha heroes and boy-next-door beta heroes.

By the time the conference rolled around, I felt I had a good handle on what constituted the Blaze novel, and had the outline of a story taking shape in my head. That year was the 5th anniversary of Blaze, and Brenda Chin was hosting a contest where she solicited ideas for the next great Blaze novel. I remember scribbling my 1-page synopsis down on a piece of paper and dropping it into the box with a feeling of hope and anticipation. But nothing could have prepared me for the phone call that came just three days after the conference, requesting the full manuscript. I wrote that book in a fast and furious ten weeks, and received The Call three months later.

It’s been exactly one year since I first submitted that manuscript to Brenda, and it’s hard to believe that Flyboy is now gone from bookstore shelves. But the result of stepping out of my comfort zone to write that one book is a contract for three more Blaze novels, due out sometime in 2008 and 2009.

So what am I trying to say? Keep doing what you’re doing, but don’t be afraid to take some risks and put yourself out there, whether it’s through contests or queries, writing articles or presenting workshops for your local chapter. And most of all, learn to recognize opportunities, and be ready to grab them when they come along.

I will give away a copy of Flyboy to two lucky readers at the end of the week. Post a comment here to get your name in the drawing — winners will be chosen at random on Friday.

Karen Foley
Karen’s group blog: The Moody Muses